Water, Water Everywhere
by Deandra
Summary: A rainy night and a hot bath. Fluffy little ONESHOT. Part 44 of the Elfwine Chronicles.


**_Part 44 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots built around the family group of Eomer, Lothiriel and Elfwine. The total number will depend on how many ideas I get for new vignettes._**

_A/N: Yeah, I know. I have some 6-8 unfinished stories in progress so naturally I'm doing a one-shot that just came to me yesterday and I wrote last night. I do intend to finish the other stories, but so far I'm just not having much luck with inspiration on them. One of them is yet another version of the E/L love story (how they met, married). Failing to find any good LOTR romances to read (and jadeddiva being off in Harry Potterland rather than giving me more Hold On, Love updates!), I guess I decided to write one of my own. (To be fair, jadeddiva did hope to have the next chapter of Hold On, Love to me next week or soon thereafter. We'll give her a break since she's being pounded by grad school.) _

_And, by the way, if you're wondering where Elfwine is in this story, he's spending the night at Freawine's house. _

**Water, Water Everywhere **

**(Oct, 11 IV)**

Eomer trudged wearily through the front doors of Meduseld, and the guards pulled them closed behind him, shutting out the wind and rain. Within moments, before he ever reached the fire pit in the middle of the Golden Hall, he was met by his wife, Lothiriel. He carefully bent to kiss her, trying to keep his wet armor from dampening her as well, but even so his wet hair swung forward, dripping on her and the floor.

She pulled back from the kiss and smiled warmly at him, "We were not sure if you would still be home tonight, considering the weather."

"I left it up to the men and they decided they would rather spend the night in warm, dry beds than in cold, sodden tents. I could not disagree with their preference, so we pressed on."

"Come," she told him, taking the hand he had pulled from a glove, and which was quite chilled. "I had them set up the bath and prepare water, just in case you did return. A hot bath will be ready shortly. Have you eaten?"

He shook his head, enjoying her attention to his comfort, and trailed behind her as she began calling out instructions to servants that scurried alongside them. Once in their bedchamber, she began helping him out of the armor and then hurried off to see to his supper. Servants were just putting the last few buckets of hot water in the tub, and left him to his bath.

Gratefully, he slipped out of his soaked clothing and eased into the water, giving a growl of pleasure as the warmth enveloped him. After a few moments, he began washing himself, anxious to be done, fed and into bed. Just as he finished with his hair and began on his body, the door to the nursery burst open and a squealing blond blur rushed in, "Papa! Papa!"

His daughter, Theodwyn, now three years of age, launched herself at his neck from behind, nearly strangling him. Laughing, he wrestled himself free of her grip and told her, "Dearest, let Papa bathe and then I will visit with you."

She protested loudly, but when he refused to yield, she made her way toward the foot of the tub. Thinking she had decided to be patient, Eomer resumed soaping himself. An instant later, his daughter had found the half empty bucket of water left by a servant, and used it as a stepstool as she scrambled to get over the end of the tub. In the process, she sent the bucket tumbling and spilling the contents all over the furs on the floor.

Before Eomer could even react or chastize her, she was teetering on the tub's edge, and he watched as she overbalanced and fell in slow motion into the bath with him, sending a cascade of more water onto the floor. He began frantically snatching at her to get her out of the water, but she sputtered to the surface, shrieking with laughter.

After staring at his offspring in disbelief, Eomer laid back against the side of the tub and shook his head. A moment later, a chuckle erupted and then turned into a full blown laugh, which is what greeted his wife when she returned just then.

"Eomer!" she scolded with exasperation, rolling her eyes at him sitting there laughing, but doing nothing to correct the situation. Torn between amusement and annoyance, she strode forward and snatched her daughter from the tub, wrapping her in a drying sheet and carrying her protestingly back to the nursery. The two servants, who had accompanied Lothiriel with Eomer's meal and to collect his armor for cleaning, hurried in to begin sopping up the floor and replace the wet furs with dry ones.

By the time Lothiriel returned with their daughter dried and into nightclothes, the servants were finished and gone, and Eomer had gotten himself clean, dried and into nightclothes as well. Setting aside the supper he was just beginning to nibble at, he visited with his daughter a few moments before kissing her and sending her off to bed.

When next his wife came to their chamber, he was largely through with his meal and tiredly sipping a goblet of wine in front of the fire. She came up behind him and began to massage his shoulders, and he moaned with delight. After allowing her ministrations for awhile, he reached up and caught her wrist, pulling her around in front of him and down onto his lap. Snuggling her close, he buried his face in her neck and murmured, "It is very good to be home, beloved."

They sat thus for quite a long time, until Lothiriel could tell by his loosening embrace that he was beginning to doze off. Reluctantly she stood, and caught his hand, "Come, my love. To bed with you."

He let out a groan of protest, but she whispered, "It will be far more comfortable...and in the morning, I will be there when you waken!"

His mouth twitched into a grin and he slowly rose to his feet, following her to the bed. Once she had him tucked in, she kissed his brow and said, "Goodnight, beloved. Sleep well."

As she started to turn away, just before Eomer drifted off to sleep, he mumbled, "Lothiriel?"

"Yes, beloved?"

"I should rather have shared the bath with you..." His words trailed off as slumber overtook him, and she smiled down at her husband.

"Perhaps, another time, dearest. When the children are already asleep and you are not so tired!"

THE END

9-15-05

_Replies to recent reviewers: _

_Elwen of Lorien – sorry to hear about your grandmother's death. Hope you are adjusting now. As for the bandit attacks, I figure once the evils of Sauron were past, and the roving bands of orcs mostly gone, that would be when the criminal population would resurface and cause problems. Orcs are convenient enemies, but as my folks get older it would seem less and less likely that they were still around much or anywhere near the threat that they used to be. _

_Julia – Part of Eomer's weeping in Lothiriel's arms in "Anger" was his hurt at Elfwine's reaction and his fear that she might have misunderstood his actions also. _

_Blue Eyes At Night – hope you've caught up, because here's more! Why do you always end up reading stories that I beta? I guess because I only beta good stories! (Which is not to say there aren't good stories that I don't beta, but the ones that I do beta I consider to be very good.) _

**_End note: It is not essential that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written, but there is an advantage to doing so. The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order (#15 came after #17, I think), but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content. _**


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